Download Indus Civilizations

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Mountains – Hindu Kush, Karakorum,
Himalayas
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Creates subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Nepal,
Bangladesh)
Indus and Ganges Rivers
Indus Ganges Plain (Around rivers)
Deccan – narrow border of lush tropical land in
southern India
Monsoons
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Unpredictable floods and change of river
course
Monsoons brought wet/dry seasons
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Writing has not been deciphered
Area larger than Mesopotamia and Egypt
Not sure where people came from
Arrived by sea from Africa?
 Passed through Khyber Pass in Hindu Kush mountains?
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Built pyramids in their cities
Sophisticated city planning (buildings/streets)
 Precise grid system, fortified Citadels, residential areas
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Plumbing and sewage systems
Strong central government
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No major social divisions
Prosperous society (clay/wooden toys)
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Little warfare
Shiva (major Indian God)
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Nonessential items
Mother goddess, fertility images, worship of cattle
Long distance trade
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Traded with the Sumerian civilization
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Quality of building decreased
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Cities began to fall
Indus River changed course?
Overused the land
Major catastrophe?
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Unburied bodies (attack, natural disaster?)
Aryans?
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Natural barriers
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2 Rivers run through this area
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Pacific Ocean (East)
Taklimakan Desert + Plateau of Tibet (West)
Himalaya Mountains (Southwest)
Gobi Desert + Mongolian Plateau (North)
Huang He + Yangtze
Mountain ranges + deserts = 2/3 of China’s land
90% of remaining farmable land is between Huang
He + Yangtze Rivers
Chinese thought people living elsewhere were
“barbarians”
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Thought China was center of civilized world
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Huang He provided yellowish silt (loess)
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Good and bad
Earned nickname “China’s Sorrow” (Killed 1 Mil +
people)
 Flooding of whole villages
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Isolation caused less dependence on trade
Did not completely protect them from invasion
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No written records from this time = unknown
events (educated guess)
China’s first dynasty = Xia Dynasty
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Led by Yu -> developed flood-control and irrigation
projects
Shang Dynasty = 1st family to leave written
records
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Built elaborate palaces and tombs
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Anyang = one of oldest and most important
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Built mainly of wood
Upper class lived within city walls / lower did not
Constantly at war
 Chariot becomes major war time tool
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Dynasty ruled by warrior-nobles
Peasants = lowest class
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Had limited farming tools
Bronze was too “precious” for tools
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Group > Individual
Lives based to serve family + king/emperor
Respect for one’s parents = most important
virtue
Men controlled property and decision making
Women seen as inferior
Girls (13 – 16) had arranged marriage
 Improved status by bearing children
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Believed spirits of family had the power to
bring good fortune or disaster
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Made sacrifices to honor dead relatives
Conversed with Gods through dead relatives
Made contact through oracle bones
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Inscribed questions in bones
Cracked the bone and interpreted what they saw
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Each character in the language stands for an
idea not a sound
No connection between written and spoken
language
Chinese unified under one system of writing
Disadvantage = had to memorize a lot of
symbols
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10k + to be true scholar
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Overthrew Shang dynasty around 1027 B.C.
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Adopted much of Shang culture
Mandate of Heaven
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Ruler of Shang dynasty was so terrible, Gods had
taken it away and given it to the Zhou People
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Political system in which nobles, or lords, are
granted the use of lands that legally belong to
the king
In return nobles owed loyalty and military
service to the king and protection to the people
who lived on their estates
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Zhou built roads and canals to supply the large
growing cities
Introduced coin money
Civil servant class emerged = ran daily
operations of city
Use of iron for weapons and agricultural tools